This Week’s Highlights From OCCRP – 16 August 2017

Beka Gonashvili’s love for Georgian folk music led him into the sheep export business nearly a decade ago. But he’s singing a sad song now, claiming that government-connected companies have driven him out of what had been a lucrative market.

In 2008, his father’s sheep business was failing, and his mother asked him to help. He told the tale to an old friend from his choir days who had moved to Turkey. His friend arranged an introduction to Ismail Yildiz, a major Turkish sheep importer.

A Mexican soccer star who captained the national team was among 22 people sanctioned by the US for alleged drug cartel links.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a joint program of a number of regional investigative centers and independent media from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and beyond. We constantly strive to help the people of the regions we work in to better understand how organized crime and corruption affect their lives.